"Commits Adultery” Once, or Continuously?

In Matthew 19:9 Jesus answers the question addressed to him by the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (vs. 3). It was a test question designed to probe his rabbinical lore and legal acumen, and his answer was expected to provide the Pharisees with further leverage against him. The question had a “cutting edge” on it as Antipas, in whose region they were at the moment, had only recently been divorced. The question was well suited for their test since rabbinical training would suppose that an answer would be based upon that collection of rabbinical lore which would later be collected in written form [in the Talmud] as the Gittin. As formulated, the question expected an interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1:

When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it into her hand and sends her out of his house...

The Gittin clearly demonstrates that the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 24:1 is ambiguous both in syntax and expression.1 The phrase “some indecency in her” had been interpreted in several ways, and therein lay the test.

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Author: Carroll Osburn

Keywords: Marriage, Divorce, Bill of divorcement, Certificate of divorce, Certificate of divorcement, Bill of divorce, School of Hillel, School of Shammai, Any cause, Every cause, Divorce for any cause, Divorce of every cause, Rabbinic debate, Commits adultery, Continues to commit adultery, Remarriage, Divorcement, Exception clause

Bible reference(s): Deuteronomy 24:1-3, Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 19:3-9, Mark 10:4, Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:18

Source: “The Present Indicative in Matthew 19:9,” Restoration Quarterly.

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